Archive for Tom O'Regan

The new releases from CES are exciting for consumers and advertisers alike, but they also present a challenge for advertisers to live up to the advances in technology. Consumers will have less patience for media pollution and will be expecting better experiences.

Luxury brands have different needs than mass brands do. Even for affluent consumers, there’s a longer decision cycle for a pair of Prada loafers versus a pair of Weejuns, and for a Tag Heuer versus a Timex. Marketers familiar with the space know that they need to be more persuasive with their campaigns, and richer and more impactful with their ads. Luxury brands need to tell stories of quality and of lifestyles full of aspiration to convince consumers they’re worth the additional money.
Portrait ads make it easier for brands to tell those stories. The oversized, three-module units create rich-media canvases for brands to share HD video, audio, images, social media and other interactive elements. Many leading publishers are successfully creating native opportunities for advertisers by incorporating their own site content into one of the modules. The adjacency of premium publisher content to the advertiser’s own content is mutually beneficial and creates an effective, engaging ad unit that feels as if it’s part of the website. While the publisher content within the unit does not truly constitute an editorial endorsement of the advertiser’s product, it does serve to instill the consumer with a sense of trust for the brand advertised.
We know... Read more

This past summer, Martini Media composed luxury brand research that looked closely at how brands were leveraging digital to connect with affluent consumers online. Based on recent demand from marketers in the auto industry, we extended our research to further examine brands in the automotive space. What we learned is that, by and large, automakers are following their consumers online. One could say – if one had a tendency to pun – that the automotive is driving the digital channel forward. And while luxury auto brands aren’t exactly leading the pack, they are keeping up quite nicely.
Agencies report that auto brands are moving into digital channels more quickly than other brands – and why not? The luxury auto story can be told elegantly online with rich media. As with TV, there’s an opportunity to roll HD video featuring beautiful images of the car in motion with atmospheric music, but rich media has the advantage of being interactive in addition to being very visual. Consumers can click to take a tour of the car, zoom in on specific features, even locate a vehicle in local inventory and make an appointment for a test drive at the dealership. Rich media was practically... Read more

I don’t run a bank or a brokerage. But I do run a business that connects businesses to affluent customers, and I have seen this customer group evolve through good times, bad times and the economic limbo we’re currently plodding through. That experience leads me to some radical advice for the financial services category. That advice? Channel bank robbers.
In particular, channel Willie Sutton. He was the most skilled and notorious thief in history, the original “Slick Willie.” When he was asked, upon capture in 1952, why he robbed banks, he said: “Because that’s where the money is.” It mystifies me that despite controlling 13 percent of all digital marketing dollars (second only to retail’s 22 percent) financial services companies still haven’t figured out where the money is. The money is not all in the top one, five or even 10 percent of your customers. The money is in expanding your valuable customers, and in meeting those customers where they live. If you work for a financial services company, you’re missing your customers, particularly the more affluent ones. Now that the Occupy movement has pretty much moved on, and it looks like corporate earnings will dictate a flat stock market through... Read more

The key takeaways from the report come from the measurement side. Commerce is relatively easy to measure. Sales lift, conversions, attribution – we know how to do all this. However, content is going to take a more sophisticated measurement approach. Brands need to get to the content that produces passion and we need more immediate measurement tools from advertising on those sites. It’s not necessarily about clicks. Learning about the audience and their behaviors and preferences is just as important. The definition of affluence is changing. Luxury brands need to change with it.